


This is the Clock Upon the Wall (This is the Story of Us All)

by americanhoney913



Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV), Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Alien Bobby, Alternate Universe - Star Wars Setting, Gen, Inspired by Fanfiction, Jedi Bobby, Jedi Luke, Post-Star Wars: The Last Jedi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-16
Updated: 2021-03-08
Packaged: 2021-03-17 22:33:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,637
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29479242
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/americanhoney913/pseuds/americanhoney913
Summary: Pictures of you, pictures of meHung upon your wall for the world to seePictures of you, pictures of meRemind us all of what we used to be--- Pictures of You, The Last Goodnight***Inspired by Pawprinter's All that Remains. Which is an amazing fanfic that everyone should read.This fic is about Alexander and Luke and Bobby before her fic starts. Just them being Jedi apprentices before everything goes wonky.
Relationships: Bobby | Trevor Wilson & Alex Mercer & Luke Patterson
Comments: 3
Kudos: 8





	1. Alexander

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Pawprinter](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pawprinter/gifts).
  * Inspired by [All That Remains](https://archiveofourown.org/works/28308627) by [Pawprinter](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pawprinter/pseuds/Pawprinter). 



> Pawprinter wrote an AMAZING fic called All That Remains that's a beautiful mix of Star Wars and JatP and it's Willex and I cry practically every time a chapter comes out.
> 
> This fic takes place at the Jedi Academy on Coruscant for the most part, although there will also be a chapter about Alexander's first mission with his Master and maybe a few misadventures.
> 
> This is inspired by the fic and I've asked some questions about the past that we didn't get in ATR, but if there's any inaccuracies that contradict later, it's because Pawprinter didn't want to spoil me. So this is just my interpretation of Alex's past.
> 
> NOTE: Bobby is an alien in this fic and might not be in the original fic if/when we meet him. He is a Zejek, which is based on the Galra from Voltron and takes inspiration from the more mammalian of the species.

Alexander listens to Bobby grumble, hears the click of something being put into a port, and opens his eyes, coming out of meditation. He slowly lets out a breath and releases the Force, unfolds his legs, and sits at the edge of his bed. The other boy’s been fiddling with a random piece of tech he must have picked up from one of the junk shops way out in CoCo Town on one of the few outings they got as younglings with the older students. Or that Master Aayla brought it back for him from one of her missions.

Bobby grumbles again and Alexander watches as his ear twitches, thin tail tipped with a tuft of purple fur lashing back and forth hard enough to knock another metal piece to the ground. The other male is tall, so he's almost fully hunched over the workbench he built out of spare parts on his side of the room. Even at the standard equivalent of Alexander's thirteen, Bobby towers over him by at least a foot and he's going to keep growing. Zejek as a species are tall, towering at over nine feet at the shortest. Bobby is one of the only Zejek Alexander has seen at the Temple; since they’re known for their tempers and are quick to anger, the Force-sensitive ones are usually sent to help the Jedi in other ways that don’t involve fighting. Bobby grew up here, with Alexander, but he still gets angry and throws things every once in a while. The blonde has heard whispers of the fear that his blade will most certainly be red if he even makes it through the Gathering to get his kyber crystal and become a padawan.

The two of them share a room and one can tell exactly where the split happens. Alexander keeps his side of the room clean and tidy, his robes hanging in a thin closet space, bed neat and made every morning so that his side looks almost bare. There’s no personality because there’s nothing special enough to keep in his room. The Jedi aren’t allowed to have attachments and Alexander considers this with even inanimate objects. Bobby’s side, on the other hand, is utter chaos. There are guts from every kind of machine Bobby can get his hands on, from the training droids to a few pieces of B1 battle droids-- heads, arms, even a disarmed gun that Alexander is _still_ wary about-- and there’s even a kyberless saber that looks older than the universe. Alexander remembers wading through the trash yard under the Temple and the excited chirrup Bobby had let out when he found an actual saber, even a broken one.

When Bobby gets like this, Alexander knows to stay out of his way.

“I’m going to go train,” he tells the other boy. Bobby grunts in return and Alexander shakes his head. Maybe Master Harrison will spar with him if she isn’t in a meeting. Bobby and Alexander and a few others-- including a Togruta female Ahsoka that already seems to be favored by a Jedi Knight _and_ a Master-- are supposed to be going to their Gathering soon, for their crystals, and Alexander wants to be ready. He can’t mess this up. Can’t let his Master down. Any of the Masters.

He travels the hall of the dorms before heading towards his favorite meditation spot. The Room of a Thousand Fountains is beautiful at all times of the day, but when Coruscant Prime hits its peak, shining through the many skylights, is the most beautiful. He almost makes it to the turbolift that leads there, when there’s a commotion somewhere to the left. He recognizes his Master’s voice, Master Aayla, and a few others he doesn’t. They’re all speaking at the same time, but he can hear words like “blind” and “broken” and something about a boy found on one of the junk-and-sand planets that exist in the Outer Rim.

He follows the voices until he comes to the small medbay that exists on the Temple grounds and Alexander guesses that it’s not bad enough to go all the way to the Grand Republic Medical Facility.

“Alexander?” He freezes next to the door when he sees Master Harrison peeks her head out of the room. The tight coils of her hair are pulled back into an intricate braided bun. Her glasses sit on her nose-- red today-- and he can see her saberstaff hanging from her hip. “I thought I thought I could sense you. What are you doing here?”

“I… I don’t know.” He fiddles with the edge of his robe. “I just heard voices and thought…” He shrugs.

“Well, you’re here now. And we’ve been working a little on your Force-healing, so maybe this will be good practice.” And he’s led into the room. 

There’s a bacta tank in the middle and there’s a boy floating inside, wearing that stupid diaper thing. Alexander shudders; he’s only been it once when one of Bobby’s robots malfunctioned and spilled boiling hot caf all over him, giving him intense burns, instead of just handing it to him. He hadn’t spent long in there, just a few hours, but it was still humiliating and stupid. Bobby had apologized, but his yellow eyes had sparkled with mirth and he teased him about wearing the diaper-like contraption for _days_ afterward.

“Who is he?” Alexander asks as Master Aayla, a Rutian Twi'lek female, and one of the masters he doesn’t recognize with pure white eyes and almost ghostly, blue-white skin typical of the Echani race. 

“Master Palabee,” Master Harrison gestures to the female Echani, “found him while on a mission to the Outer Rim.”

Alexander has never been to the Outer Rim, but he’s heard stories from the padawans and knights that would grace the rerefectories when they weren't on missions or training in the upper levels. Hutts and bounty hunters and smugglers and spice traders other less favorable characters. It’s like a whole space filled with the same kind of people who live in the underworld of Coruscant. But usually, Jedi don’t go to junk planets, on missions or otherwise. This boy must be special.

“Is he okay?” Alexander focuses on the boy as he floats in suspended animations, his eyes closed and breath fogging up the apparatus over his mouth. He can see bruises and scars all over the boy’s body, can count each of his ribs. “What happened to him?”

“Junk planets are not the easiest place to live, youngling,” Master Palabee tells him. “Every day is a fight for survival.” She presses slim fingers tipped with long nails against the glass, making a _clacking_ sound. “Poor child.”

“Is he, uh, is he like us?” Alexander stumbles over his words, swallows as Master Palabee looks at him with her pure white eyes. It’s kind of unsettling under her stare. Where Bobby at least has slitted pupils, the Echani have no pupil at all.

“He’s Force-sensitive, but not trained like you,” is the answer.

“And, once he’s healed,” Master Harrison pipes up, “ _you’re_ going to be his guide. You and Bobby.”

“But--”

“This is your first task as a padawan.”

Alexander freezes up at that. He and Bobby have their Gathering soon, along with their cohort, so this will be his official task as a padawan without him even being one yet. Alexander straightens his spine, stands taller. Being given a task fit for a padawan… he’s going to take his task seriously.

Wait until Bobby hears about this!

* * *

When he finally meets Luke, the junk planet boy, outside of the bacta tank, he doesn’t really know what to expect. What he _was_ expecting was a quiet, scared kid with no social skills, fearful of every little noise. He's expecting someone who's territorial over food and space and anything that they see as _theirs_.

He’s so completely wrong.

Luke _never shuts up_. It’s like, now he’s around people, he wants to say everything on his mind. He’s exuberant and follows after Alexander like a lost puppy. He wants to see every single part of the Temple, which is a weird thought because he can’t actually _see._ He had ask Master Harrison why they didn’t just heal him, but got the answer that there was something in the Force blocking their best healers from doing so. Luke’s eyes are crystalline with scars around the outside, cloudy like he’s gone sun-blind. There're so many sandstorms on his home planet, he got caught up in one without goggles, got an extreme sand rash and his eyes had been scarred and he couldn’t see anymore.

However, his exuberance for life and for exploring allows Alexander to see the temple for the first time with, well, with new eyes. As if he’s seeing it for the first time. Luke can see with his senses, with the Force. Alexander guides him with a gentle pressure on his back, but that’s the extent of it. 

Sometimes, Bobby joins them on their little excursions when Alexander can pull him away from his tinkering. His clawed fingers clink against metal as he fiddles with something in his hands. Always fiddling. Luke sits with Bobby at his work table, hands moving just as fast as the Zejek's, fingers able to put together things Bobby's claws can't quite grasp. Alexander might come back from meditation or one of the refectories with an armful of snacks to see Luke in their room, sitting on _his_ bed, covered in oil or some kind of liquid, beaming at him as he presents an automaton bird that can sing or play a simple tune. At least he's not building weapons of mass burning like Bobby, who's spilled at least two more cups of caf on Alexander.

Luke lives with a male Rodian named Bloot. He's nice, has an even temple, but Luke prefers to hang out with Bobby at his workbench or trying to meditate with Alexander. Luke sucks at meditation because, after a few minutes, he'll start squirming. He's in a constant state of motion and Alexander knows he finds it hard to sink into the Force, to sit still, but he tries and that's enough.

* * *

As a cohort, Alexander and the others eat together in one of the mid-level refectories. It's a few days before their Gathering and the table they've taken for themselves is buzzing with all different languages mixed with Basic and Aurebesh. There's seven of them in total: two humans, three Rylothians, a Rodian, and a Zejek.

Bobby’s been down at the Jedi’s private spaceport with the _Crucible_ , a Paladin-class corvette that would take them to Illum, so when he slips into the seat next to Alexander, the blonde smiles at him. There's a little patch of fur missing on his arm-- yet another scar to add to the Zejek's collection of tiny ones across his body-- and there's dirt under his claws. But his Force signature feels relaxed and his smile is mildly toothy instead of a tense line.

“We all good to fly in a few days?” he asks as the Zejek sits next to him. He’s got grease in his fur, the darker purple hair on his head pulled back into a short ponytail. Bobby nods, tail flicking against Alexander’s back. It’s one of his little signals that he’s okay but not feeling up for verbal conversation. Bobby doesn't speak much, usually keeps to himself, but he and Alexander have grown up together and they've developed a language of their own that includes hand motions and tail flicks, even a few growls when he's particularly tired. It's kind of like trying to communicate with a Wookie at some times.

“This place has _everything_ ,” Luke says through a mouthful of Bantha-butter pancakes. Ahsoka Tano, older than Alexander by a few standard rotations, wrinkles her nose as he chews, messy and gross, and Alexander sympathizes with her because she's sitting right across from the junker boy. Luke doesn’t have the best table manners, but that comes from being raised on a junk planet. Alexander and Ahsoka share a look across the table and she rolls her eyes, making Alexander snort into his blue milk.

The Force buzzes around him as Bloot sits on his other side, talking to a Tholothian female and there are some Rylothians chattering with each other in rapid Twi'leki, their lekku moving almost as fast as their mouths.

Everyone is excited for the Gathering. What color will their lightsaber be? Would they even be able to pass the Vengence that lay beneath the surface of Illum, ready to show them their worst nightmare or even a Force-vision of the future?

Alexander didn't know but, surrounded by the chatter of his cohort and Bobby's hand resting on the back of the bench, clawed fingers grounding him in the moment and Luke knocking his foot against his from where he sits diagonally from the blonde, he feels like there's nothing they can't do together.


	2. The Gathering

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's finally time for the younglings to face the Crystal Caves of Illum to get their kyber crystals.

Illum is a planet covered in ice in the 7G sector of the Unknown Regions. It’s a small planet and the only lifeforms Alexander remembers learning that there's flora and fauna, but no sentient creatures. Luke presses his face to one of the transparasteel viewports, his breath fogging up the glass, as the  _ Crucible  _ descends onto the desolate landscape of Illum. It’s funny that Luke’s the one at the viewport because, well, he can’t see and he’s not on the ground to be able to use the Force to make sense of his surroundings. Although, when Alexander squints, he can’t see anything beyond a wall of white and huge cliff faces and mountains. So, maybe there are no caves at all.

“It looks inhospitable,” Ahsoka grumps as she buttons her heavy winter coat, shivering at just the thought of the cold. Bobby grunts and crosses his arms from where he stands, tail lashing in agitation. His fur is thicker than the smooth skin of his cohort but not as thick as a Wookie’s, so he’s wearing his Jedi robes with the hood pulled up over his ears.

“Maybe that’s the point,” Bloot responds, voice sounding like it’s underwater. 

“Younglings, the time has come for you to build your own lightsabers.” The group turns to see Master Obi-Wan in a thick pair of Jedi robes. Jedi Knight Anakin leans against the wall like he’d rather be anywhere else, examining his gloved hands. And, well, Alexander gets it. There’s probably a ton of other things the knight would rather be doing than taking a bunch of younglings to a frozen planet to wait around to see if they even complete their Gathering.

“This is no simple task,” he continues while the ship lands with a slight jolt. As Bobby stated multiple times before they departed, the ship is as old as the Jedi. There are eight rooms set up in a circle, like a wheel, on the lower deck where the aircraft hanger used to be, where they’re going to eventually make their lightsaber… if they passed their trials. “And many perils lie ahead of you. Where we are going... there is no place more sacred to the Jedi.”

The younglings gather around the ramp and there’s a blast of cold air. Alexander shivers in his fur-lined jacket. He’s always hated the cold. Alexander feels Luke press against his back as if hiding from the weather, and the blonde remembers that the other boy grew up on a hot, sandy junk planet in the Outer Rim. Not used to the cold at all.

It’s a desolate wasteland, but the planet is alive with the Force. Alexander’s whole body is buzzing with it, the same kind of nervous energy feeling that makes him tap out a rhythm on his thigh when he can’t settle into meditation. The wind blows shards of ice as sharp as knives into their skin and Bobby kind of wraps his long, furry arm, around Luke’s shoulder, lending him some warmth. Bloot, the Tholothian female, and the Rylothian twins follow behind them, chittering amongst themselves as they step out into the harsh environment.

They walk, Master Obi-Wan and the knight leading the way, further away from the ship. Alexander hears the ramp shut behind them and shivers, hunching his shoulders further into his coat and pressing his side into Bobby. They must look so dumb, pressed together for warmth and stumbling along behind the great Obi-Wan and his equally notable yet grumpy knight. Ahsoka skips up until she’s next to Knight Skywalker and she begins to badger him, asking him questions and Alexander can see his pinched face, but there’s a little smile curving at it. Alexander has seen the two of them interact before at the Temple. Training and meditating. Ahsoka’s kind of taken with Anakin in a way one might be with an older sibling. Attachments aren’t allowed, but the one between a potential mentor and the padawan they take as their own.

“It’s a dead end,” Bloot burbles in his accented Basic. Alexander is brought out of his musings and Bobby grunts when he runs into his back, puts a clawed hand on his shoulder. They’re standing in front of a huge cliff, towering and ominous. There’s only the howling winds behind them and nowhere else to go.

“Younglings,” Obi-Wan calls out, “outstretch your hands and focus the Force.”

They all do as he says. Alexander closes his eyes and looks inward, calling upon the Force. Luke huffs and grumbles and Alexander can practically  _ feel _ him wiggling through the Force, trying to steady himself within it. Bobby, on the other hand, is like a tree truck at his back, steady and strong and unyielding. Each person accesses and sees the Force differently. For Alexander, it’s like threads, each person a dot of distinct light with distinct feelings. Non-sentient creatures are dimmer and he can feel those of Illum scamper and run around the planet. There’s also something inside the planet, calling to him through the Force. 

“Together, and only together,” Obi-Wan’s voice breaks through, “can we enter.”

There’s a loud rumbling noise and Alexander’s eyes shoot open as the cliff begins to collapse in on itself, the columns of ice slotting into place in the ground. Anakin stalks ahead, Ahsoka close behind him, the tips of her lekku barely visible through the snow stirred up by the Force-moved columns. Bobby grumbles something to Luke about the mechanics of it all and Luke chirps in excitement and the Force flows around him. The stronger the Force in a certain space, the better he’s able to “see” with his senses.

“Come on, hurry up.” Anakin’s voice echoes through the cave. “The sun’s coming up and we haven’t got all the time in the galaxy.” Obi-Wan follows behind them, hand on the lightsaber hooked at his hip, like he’s got to protect them from something. But what?

A long icy hallway leads into a giant room. Long statues stand watch, timeless, swords pointed down to the ground. There’s a giant crystal hanging from the ceiling, suspended by a mechanism. Sitting in the middle of the room is a tiny green creature and, as they get closer, he realizes it’s… 

“Master Yoda,” Obi-Wan says as he tilts his head to the small Grand Master. 

Alexander and the others of his cohort gather around as he begins speaking in that curious dialect of his. “The Force made physical, a Jedi is. Comes great responsibility with that, yes? Protect others, how does a Jedi, hmm?” He pull s out his lightsaber and turns it on, the green beam glowing. It’s beautiful and dangerous at the same time and Alexander wonders what color his will be. Bobby’s just hoping he finds a crystal at all, will become the first Zejek in a really long time to do so, and Luke’s whole body is almost vibrating with tension. Ahsoka looks excited, before she sees Anakin huff and does the same, crosses her arms to mimic him. “Build your own lightsaber, you shall. But first, harvest your crystal, each one of you must.” A holo version of a colorless kyber crystal floats in the air next to his lightsaber. It's smaller than he thought it would be, but it makes sense since lightsabers are small themselves. “The heart of the lightsaber, the crystal is. Focuses the Force from the Jedi, it does.”

He waves his three claw-tipped fingers and there’s another rumbling above them/ The crystal mechanism above suddenly starts to glow as a beam of sunlight streams in through an opening created using the Force. It spins and spins, faster and faster, until the light fractiles, hitting all the crystals scattered around the cave. Alexander watches in awe, feeling Luke grip his arm, and he kind of tries to project what he’s seeing to the other boy. The water covering one side of the wall begins to melt when the light hits it. Grand Master Yoda looks out at their group. “If Jedi you are to become, enter the crystal cave, you must. Trust yourself, trust each other, and succeed, you will.”

Obi-Wan and Anakin lead them to the stairs leading up to the entrance of the Crystal Cave and then stop, Grand Master Yoda behind them by a few steps. The whole place feels so full with the Force that it’s almost heavy. “Once you have found your crystal, do not remain inside,” Obi-Wan tells them. “As daylight ends, the door will freeze over again, and you will be trapped.”

“For how long?” Bloot asks in his watery Basic.

“For one rotation,” Anakin answers, tone bored.

“There will be nothing anyone can do for you,” Obi-Wan warns.

“How will we know which crystal to pick?” Ahsoka speaks up, picking at the edge of her sleeve. She’s standing between Bobby and Bloot. There’s nervous energy flowing through the room and Alexander can feel it prickling at the back of his neck. He’s always felt like that, the ocean of the Force inside him washing at the walls of his mind like a torrent when his anxiety rises too high. Bobby’s tail flicks at his back and it brings him back to himself in time to hear Obi-Wan’s answer.

“Only you can know which one is yours.” He gestures with his arm towards the cavern. “Now, hurry.”

Alexander looks over his shoulder as their cohort steps inside the cave. 

“How do they expect us to find our crystals when the whole place is made up of ice?” Zelza, the Tholothian female, asks out loud. It’s a rhetorical question, but one Alexander would very much like the answer to. They only have each other to rely on and no information about the actual choosing of the crystal.

“I don't see the big deal, though,” Ahsoka boasts, throwing one of her lekku over her shoulder. She puffs out her chest and a cloud of white spills from her lips. “I could easily last a night in here.”

Bobby pulls out a little handheld data computer, the  _ ticking  _ of his claws against the screen is the only sound louder than the cohort’s breathing. “From my calculations, taking into account the planetary movements in this system,” he coughs and shakes his head, “um... the sun only rises on Ilum every 19 days.”

“That's a very long night,” Luke says. His scared eyes scan the crystal cave as if he can see where he’s going, but Alexander knows he’s feeling his way through with the Force. The blonde can hear crackling behind them and knows that every moment they stand here is yet another moment they could be finding their crystal and getting back to Grand Master Yoda and Master Obi-Wan.

* * *

Alexander almost cries as he watches the waterfall freeze over. He’s trapped. There’s no escape. He’s going to freeze in here. Die. He whimpers and curls in on himself next to the frozen waterfall. Nineteen days… by the time the snow melts again, he’ll be nothing but a popsicle. This is almost worse than what he had to endure further in the caves.

Tears stream down his cheeks as he tries not to imagine what he heard and felt and saw while in the depths of the cave. His breath rattles in his lungs and his hands shake. But every time he closes his eyes, he sees it… them. The bodies of his friends spread across the floor of the crystal caves, blaster bolt wounds and lightsaber stabs leaving them lifeless on the ground. Shattered crystals and a red lightsaber. Blood colored the floor, staining the bottom of his pants and his hands and and and...

The blonde sucks in a deep breath and tries to push down his emotions with the Force. There has to be some way out. Grand Master Yoda wouldn’t let him die in here.

_ Come on, you gotta keep moving! _ It’s the same voice as before. The one that pulled him out of that horrible vision of his friends. He doesn’t know if it’s a Force vision or just the Dark in the cave testing him. But he’d managed to slosh through the violence, the voice in his ear telling him to move forward, to keep going, to not give in to the darkness. At the end of the icy corridor, filled with bodies and smelling like blood, had been a small shining shard that felt different from the crystal makeup of the cave.

He settles against the frozen waterfall, hunched in on himself, feeling more hopeless than he ever has before. There’s no way out.

_ Don’t give up! _ It sounds like a blend of Luke and Bobby and the strange voice of the cave. The blonde closes his eyes, reaches out through the Force. Maybe he can break the frozen waterfall if he tries hard enough. He stretches out his hand, just like they did to reveal the entrance to the Jedi Temple buried in the mountain.

The waterfall crackles and creaks and groans, so Alexander uses more of his strength on the Force, imagining the ice melting and the crystals becoming liquid until something breaks with a burst of energy. He blinks as weak sunlight shines through and, beyond, his cohort and Grand Master Yoda and Jedi Knight Anakin and Master Obi-Wan.

“You made it!” Alexander barely has time to push out of the hole in the waterfall before Luke’s falling on him, pulling him into a tight hug. Alexander crumbles into him, pressing his cold face into the crook of his neck. Bobby wraps his arm around him from behind and there’s so much warmth that Alexander doesn’t think he’ll ever be cold again. He can see Bloot and Ahsoka and the others over Luke’s shoulder and they’re all in various forms of disheveled. Zelza’s missing one of the red fleshy tendrils coming out of her head; the two Rylothians, twins Titu and Xetian, huddle together, thin gashes on their arms. 

“How did he break the ice?” Bobby grumbles from above him as he pulls away. Luke refuses to let go when Alexander tries to pull away, so he lets him stay, the two of them clinging to each other.

“Only water made solid was the door,” Grand Master Yoda says as he gestures towards where the hole Alexander made has already been refrozen by the slightest trickle of water. “Easy to break if you have the will.”

“You-you said we would be trapped,” Luke accuses, glaring at Grand Master Yoda. And it’s now, as Alexander lifts his head from the crook of Luke’s neck to pull away, that he realizes that Luke’s actually glaring at the Jedi Master instead of in his general direction. The scars from sandblindess are gone, the skin as smooth as if he’d never had them. Luke’s eyes swirl with a mixture of blues and greens and even shards of gold instead of the filmy green-blue. He wants to remark on it but knows it isn’t the time. 

“Not by the cave you were,” Yoda taps a claw against his own forehead, “but by your mind.” He turns to face the whole cohort now. “Lessons, you have learned. Find courage, you did. Hope, patience, trust, confidence, and selflessness. Yes?” As he says each word, he looks at a different member of their group. When he says  _ courage _ , he looks directly at Alexander.

“Great job, everyone.” Master Obi-Wan claps her hands. “Now, we'll head back to the ship, where Professor Huyang will lead you in building your lightsabers.” Anakin follows close behind, the rest of the group all following after him. Bobby, Luke, and Alexander take up the rear. There’s a small cut through one of Bobby’s dark eyebrows, thin blue blood beading at the corner. Luke’s walking with a little bit of a limp and he stumbles once, Bobby’s clawed hand reaching out at lightspeed to catch him, yellow eyes wide and concerned.

Once they leave the temple, Yoda uses the Force to raise the icy columns and block the entrance. The ship ramp lower and they all kind of stumble and stagger onto the ship.

“Everyone, go to the living quarters and rest,” Obi-Wan says. “You’ll need all your strength to build your saber.”

The girls go down one corridor, Zelza and Ahsoka, and Titu saying goodnight, while the boys go in the opposite direction. Bloot and Xetian claim one of the rooms for themselves while Alexander stays between Bobby and Luke as they take the next room over.

“What happened to you in there?” Luke asks as he settles onto the bottom bunk set into the wall.

“I saw a vision… everyone was dead.” Alexander’s voice shakes. “I had to keep going. My crystal was on the other side of the hall. I could feel it calling.” He doesn’t want to close his eyes for fear of seeing that vision again. Hopefully, one day, it’ll fade into the background and he’ll forget it. “You?”

“I think Grand Master Yoda was talking to me when he said  _ patience _ .” Luke thumbs at the corner of one of his eyes. Like he’s also shocked that he can see. “I just wanted to find my crystal and get out...” He fiddles with some of the fur on his robe. “I kept bumping into things because I was so focused on finding my crystal that I wasn’t focused on using the Force to see. I just needed a little patience, that’s all.”

“When I got so frustrated that my datapad wouldn’t give me the proper readings, I smashed it against the wall. Found my crystal by trusting myself more than the tech.” The single bed across from them groans as Bobby leans back against the wall. His glowing eyes stand out against the dimness of the room, the only other light source from a dim glow-bulb near the door. He yawns, curls his large frame up as best he can in the tiny bunk, and closes his eyes. “We should sleep,” he grumbles, one of his fangs peeking out of his mouth as he talks. “I heard Anakin tell Ahsoka that sometimes it takes  _ days _ of meditation to complete your lightsaber.”

“Aw, man,” Luke throws his arm over his eyes, “I don’t think I can meditate for that long.”

Alexander rolls his eyes. “Once you sink in, I don’t think you come out until it’s finished. So you probably won’t have to worry about that.” Luke is probably the worst out of their whole cohort when it comes to meditating, unable to sit still for more than a few seconds. It’s something that Alexander loves about the other boy, even if it is distracting during their quiet meditation sessions.

After a few minutes, Bobby starts snoring so loud it feels like it’s rattling around in Alexander’s bones. But instead of keeping him up, it almost lulls him into a state of relaxation. His friends aren’t lying bloody on the floor, dead from saber wounds or blaster bolts, but all around him. He can hear them breathing around him, can feel the ship move through hyperspace as they travel back to Coruscant, can feel the billions of lifeforms throughout the galaxy within the Force.

Alexander hopes his visions were just the cave testing him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I watched the episode "The Gathering" from the Clone War TV show, as that was the only place I could find the actual Gathering besides Wookiepedia. Some dialogue lifted from it. Mostly Master Yoda's dialogue and a little bit from the younglings on the show.
> 
> Let me know what you guys thought!
> 
> Again, there's no set schedule for this fic, but I seem to be very inspired at the moment. My next idea is either a lightsaber training/sparring session (where we learn everyone's colors and favored forms) or Alexander and Master Harrison going on a mission.


	3. First Mission

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alexander's first mission as a Padawan.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I'm not the biggest Star Wars expert so I don't know about some of the missions the Jedi went on, but I wanted Alex's first mission to be to Bobby's species homeworld. And, yes, since Bobby's species is essentially Galra, I wanted to make their world like that too. Aliens are fun!

Komzar is a weird planet, Alexander thinks as he looks out of the viewport of the ship he and Master Harrison are using for their current mission. It’s a repurposed YT-1300 Corellian freighter, _Pathfinder,_ the cargo hold remodeled to be a training space during long bouts of interstellar travel. It takes two people to pilot the ship and Master Harrison’s been teaching him some of the basics; he’s not very good at it, however, and had accidentally pulled them out of lightspeed, almost slamming into an asteroid field. He’s not the pilot in his cohort. Luke and Ahsoka are the pilots and Bobby’s the mech-tech guy; sometimes Alexander doesn’t know where he fits in within the Jedi. But he’s hoping he has time to find out.

“We’ll be landing soon, so you better strap in,” Master Harrison says. “The planet is hospitable, air breathable.” Alexander watches her fingers move across the control panel, inputting commands for the computer and trying to do as she tells him to as they start the landing sequence.

Komzar looks strange because it’s not… well, it’s not planet-shaped exactly. The colors are muted reds and greys with pockets of purple, which look like lit-up cities. There’s a dome-shaped “cap” on one end of it, split into many jagged parts pointing to the underside of the planet. The whole bottom looks like a mountain, with caps of grey ice and rivers of silver. It doesn’t look hospitable at all. Instead, it looks hostile and the Force coming from the planet feels almost like the darkness inside the crystal caves. Sinister, but not like the _Dark Side_ of the Force. Although, would he be able to even tell the difference since he hasn’t really come into contact with any Sith in his life, protected as he was within the walls of the Temple?

“Why does it look like that?” he asks Master Harrison as she gestures to a few of the buttons and levers on his side of the control panel. “So, uh, wonky?”

She shrugs. “We don’t really know, but there are accounts from the planet in the Jedi Archives from long ago.” She gestures with one hand to Komzar’s single star, a yellow-orange medium-sized star, Zaal, that’s much larger than Coruscant Prime. The Zaal system sits in the Mid Rim but is one of the last stops before one reaches the Outer Rim. “It’s said that Komzar was much closer to its star before it settled where it’s located now in its system. So the front half was pulled by gravity to form the cap. ”

“ _This is_ Pathfinder _from Coruscant. We’re requesting landing at Diilax Port._ ” Master Harrison’s voice is steady as she hails the planet. Diilax is the capital of Komzar and its huge sprawling city, with a visible spaceport right at the edge. It’s much smaller than Coruscant, which is an ecumenopolis, but it’s still a city and, through the Force, Alexander can feel millions of lives moving around.

“ _D_ _iilax Port to_ Pathfinder _. Please land in Bay 42._ ” It’s a gruff voice that answers, a low rumbling that Alexander can almost feel. He and Master Harrison quickly find the correct port and land there with little fanfare. Alexander puts his hand on the hilt of his lightsaber because he has no idea what he’s walking into, but he knows they’re here on a peace mission between two almost-at-war factions of the planet.

There are multiple life forms within the spaceport, but the main beings living on this planet are Zejek, like Bobby. Komzar is where Bobby would have grown up if he hadn’t been brought to the Temple as a Alexander squints up at the nearest Zejek. _Kriff_ , they’re tall. Bobby’s like a runt in comparison and he’s already taller than Alexander by a whole head, even though they’re the same age. Bobby is probably the tallest thirteen-year-old in the whole compound. If this Zejek is over nine feet tall, at least, then Bobby will be taller than him by a _lot_ by the time they’re Knights.

They don’t stop to see any of the sights on their way to a huge palatial compound on the other end of the city. Instead, they hop in a hover-taxi piloted by a silver droid with red glowing eye slots and a sleek design. As they get closer, the compound’s details start taking shape.

It’s an imposing building made out of a purple-ish silver metal. Everything looks sharp, like it could cut you if you touched anything. There are various shapes milling around, on the steps leading up to the building and meandering between fountains that look like they’re bubbling with a grayish water. Everything on the planet seems to be either shades of purple, grays, or reds. There’s hardly any plant life at all; what does exist is low red reeds and struggling grasses that almost blend in with the rust-red soil. It reminds him of the holos he’s seen of Crait, with its red soil under pure white salt snow.

“Master Harrison.”

Alexander looks up at yet another towering Zejek as he and his Master step out of the hover-taxi. They have a deep voice and almost hiss on the S within the words. Alexander notices what looks like scales curling from the top of their pointed cranium, down their neck, and into the tight jumpsuit they’re wearing. Like Bobby, this Zejek has yellow eyes, but this one doesn’t have pupils and doesn’t blink at all. Like a snake. A long, thick tail lashes behind the Zejek as they continue to speak. “Welcome to Komzar.” They put their closed fist over where Alexander guesses their heart is and gives a slight nod of respect.

“Quarix,” Master Harrison does the same kind of fist-to-heart bow and Alexander follows suit. He’s not sure if it’s respect between two of equal standing or just a general greeting. Maybe he should have studied in the Temple Archives, but there had been almost no time between becoming a Padawan, being chosen by Master Harrison, making his lightsabers, and trying not to relive his cave vision.

“We have been waiting many quintents for you to arrive.” Their voice grates against Alexander's eardrums. “Nox is getting antsy.” They turn around and lead the way, purple scales glinting in the crystalline lights coming from the wall sconces. It’s the same purple as the fur that makes up Bobby's hair, but where the fur that covers his body is a lighter purple-gray, Quarix has scales instead of fur or hair. He’s never seen a Zejek with scales before, thought they only had fur.

Alexander keeps close to Master Harrison as they make their way through the compound. While there are many species within, the Zejeks obviously outnumber them. There are two main types of the species. Those, like Bobby, who have fur, ears, and thin tails with tufts at the ends. And those like Quartix, who have scales, don’t blink, and thick reptilian tails. They don’t even have ears, just holes where their ears would be if they were mammalian.

Quarix looks back and down at Alexander, seeing him staring, and glares. It’s very strange to be stared at by someone who doesn’t blink.

* * *

Alexander didn’t know why he and Master Harrison are here until they’re led into a room off to the side of the large main hallway. There are two other Zejek in there of undetermined gender. They have the same features as Bobby, but everything is bigger. There’s a small one and a tall one, the shorter one making up for their height with the length of their ears.

“Finally,” the shorter one says. “They’re going to vote soon and we thought the Jedi could help mediate.”

“Hello, Nova.” She dips her head and puts her hand to her heart towards the taller of the mammalian ones. “Have they decided the vote, Nox?” Master Harrison asks as the taller of the mammalian Bobby-like Zejek shuts the door. The shorter one turns to her with those yellow eyes and red slitted pupils. “If they already have, I can’t help you.”

“If you cannot help us, there will be war,” Nox snarls, her teeth flashing in the light of the room. Her hand goes to her hip, where a silver blaster sits in a holster. It puts Alexander on edge and, from what little he’s read about the Zejeks with Bobby while they were bored one night-- and then Bobby had stolen the holocron to break it apart and study it-- he knows they’re quick to anger and very prone to violence over peace. 

Alexander still doesn’t understand why the Jedi are needed for this when it looks like the three of them _want_ violence, but the taller of the two mammalian Zejeks put his clawed hand on Nox’s shoulder. She calms down slightly, huffs out a sigh, and straightens her back into a soldier's stance.

“If they vote to shut the borders between the top half of the planet and the lower, our people will die.” This is said by the reptilian Quarix from where he stands against the door, blocking the way out. The hairs on the back of Alexander's neck stand up at the thought of being trapped in here with three volatile Zejeks and one Master. He puts his hand on his lightsaber as discreetly as possible, just in case.

“We have been trying to persuade the Exalted Sa to change his mind,” Nova says, his claws curling into a fist. “His little parliament is a farce, meant to placate the Core Worlds. Make them think we have a democracy. But it is all lies.”

“He rules with an iron fist and the parliament will do as he wishes,” Nox adds. Alexander wonders if they’re together or siblings or something because they both have the same type of pattern on their fur. 

“We’ll try to talk to him.” Master Harrison nods to him and Quarix narrows his yellow, pupil-less eyes at him. “Maybe the Jedi can change his mind. Or, at least, persuade him.” She wiggles her fingers in an almost teasing manner, but the three Zejeks don’t find any amusement in her statement.

“Good luck. And thank you.” Nova gives them the same gesture as Quarix did upon meeting them by their ship.

* * *

“Master, why do they need our help if even they can’t change his mind?” Alexander asks as he follows Master Harrison down the long main hallway of the complex. It must be where their government is housed. Like the Royal Court in Naboo or Alderaan. Exalted Sa must be their leader.

“Because, if he blocks off access to the trade routes to the dark side of the planet, the reptilian Zejeks, known as the Renti, will die. He’s already forced them from their homes and towns and cities. Now he wants them to be on their own.”

“He made them move?”

“Yes. There was a war between the old leader, Vox, and Sa. Vox wanted peace, but Zejeks have never really been very good at it. Sa wanted to move those like him, the mammalian Zejeks, called Naeus, to the light side of the planet, so that they could prosper and thrive. Force the reptilian Zejeks out.”

“But aren’t reptiles cold blooded?”

“Exactly.” Master Harrison snaps her fingers and points at Alexander. “The Naeus can live in colder climates, but Sa has forced the Renti to flee to the underside of the planet, which gets no sun. He now wants to block all trade routes to the underside of the planet.”

“Can they sustain themselves, Master?” he asks. They’re getting a few weird looks from the beings that linger or walk through the halls, but Master Harrison walks at a brisk pace and Alexander has to jog a little to keep up.

“No.” She shakes her head. “It's hard to grow anything in a place that doesn’t get sunlight. And he wants to limit their access to the capital as well. Where all the ships come in and out, bringing goods from other planets. He’s essentially sending them there to die."

“So we’re here to try to change his mind?”

“We can try, Padawan, but there are those even we can’t persuade.” She stops at a huge double door. There are ornate carvings that Alexander thinks are some sort of symbols or even writing. He’s usually pretty good with different languages… more verbal than written.

The doors open into a large room. It’s filled with Naeus and maybe two or three Renti on opposite sides of the room. As if this separation will stop them from talking to each other. On a dais in the middle, higher up than everyone else, sits an overly large Naeus with sharp claws and one eyes, the other closed by a thick scar. There are various scars on his body, long thick, and pink. It looks like they haven’t healed at all. He’s bigger than any Zejek Alexander has ever seen. Almost two Bobbys tall. He’s terrifying.

“Ah,” his voice booms across the meeting hall, “the Jedi are here.” He laughs and it shakes the room. “Nova, Nox, and Quarix thought that you could change the mind of the great Exalted Sa to change his mind.” He laughs again. Alexander can feel it resonating through his bones. He wraps himself in the Force, shoves his feelings down into a little box among the other little boxes of feelings. If he doesn’t, he might just explode.

“We are here on behalf of the Renti,” Master Harrison says and her voice doesn’t even waver. “The Jedi act on behalf of those who need it. And those who are oppressed.” She crosses her arms. “If you go through with the vote, you’re killing off half the population.”

His lip curls up into a snarl and one of the scars stretches with it. “What I do on _my_ planet is no concern of the Core Worlds.”

“It is when lives are at stake.” His Master doesn’t show any fear and Alexander stands taller just so he looks as confident as she is, even if he doesn’t feel it. Inside he’s a mess as the box full of emotions almost shakes apart. He takes another deep breath and tries to push those feelings back down.

“They never cared before, when my people were freezing and starving in the dark underbelly of Komzar.”

“Because you were _not_ starving or freezing. Your bodies are covered in fur and you're warm-blooded. And you invented things. In fact, your people have created some of the most brilliant tech the Core Worlds love. Especially those who live on planets far from their sun.” She pulls out a data cube and projects some of the technology Alexander has seen before but never knew it came from Komzar. Golden kites to catch the rays of the sun just peeking over the horizon, tethered to power stations to convert into energy; strong solar panels set high on mountain tops that just peek over the sunlit side of the jagged cap to catch any sunlight they can. Even some device Alexander doesn’t remember the name of to catch blasts of solar flare energy that will curl around every crevice of a planet. Especially a planet with a thin atmosphere and weird shape like Komzar. “There are others who wouldn’t still be here without your tech and innovations.”

“Well, you’re welcome, but the parliament has already made their decision.” He holds up his hand as the rest of the Zejeks start to talks amongst themselves. As soon as his hand is in the air, they go silent. The Renti look at each other with worried eyes across the large space. One of them taps his claws against his desk, dark purple skin almost flush with nerves. “I, I mean, we have decided that, if the Renti _pay_ for their right to use different parts of Diilax, then we will keep the borders open. To those who cannot pay… they will just have to deal.”

“Are those terms negotiable? What kind of payment will you be expecting? How can you expect payment when they are starting with nothing on the side of the planet with no sunlight, which could kill them?”

“They can use the prototypes we left there to keep themselves warm.” Sa stands up and he towers over everyone. Master Harrison stands in the line of his shadow and it stretches across the floor, backlit as he is by the weak sunlight coming in through the frosted transparisteel. 

Master Harrison continues speaking, unafraid of the giant in the room. Alexander kind of zones out while they talk; political drivel has never been his strong suit either. That’s all Bloot. Which is good and useful, because he never shuts up. Maybe it would have been better for his Master to take someone skilled in the art of negotiations and politics to this meeting. Left him back at the Temple.

“Enough!” Sa’s roar brings him back and it takes everything he has not to jump in surprise or shock. “I will hear no more of this. We have made the decision and it is final. If the Core Worlds have a problem with that, they can send someone who isn’t a Jedi. An actual representative, perhaps.” He turns from Master Harrison and heads out through a giant door behind his chair and Alexander realizes that the transparisteel were actually panels to doors.

“Come, Padawan,” Master Harrison throws her braids over her shoulder and turns her back on the parliament. “We’ll report the vote to Nox, Nova, and Quarix before we head back to Coruscant.” Alexander nods and follows her, hand still on the hilt of his lightsaber, the curious glances from the Zejeks in the room following him as he exits.

* * *

“So, how was Komzar?” Bobby asks as he sits at his desk. There’s more clutter on it now than before they were Padawans. There’s an Ewok stick— which makes no sense because it’s not tech— an Okari biosphere, a cracked and unusable holocron from one of the trash dumps below the Temple, and many other things he’s picked up on his journeys and excursions with his own Master.

“Weird. Exhausting," Alexander responds as he shrugs off his pack. He riffles through it for a moment and tosses Bobby an egg-shaped piece of tech. “You’re tiny compared to them.”

“Hey,” Bobby scowls at him as he taps the top of the metallic egg, “I’m still growing.” The mechanism unfolds into a metal durasteel spider, one of the many walking around Diilax. It has four tentacular appendages and two saucer-shaped body parts. There’s an eye that emits a soft purple light and it winks out every so often. Alexander had seen them doing simple repairs and even watering the small amount of plant life that existed around the big parliament building. “Did you steal this?” He holds up the mechanism and shakes it, the tentacles waving in the air as he holds it upside down.

“Uh, no?” Alexander shrugs. “It just happened to fall into my bag. I didn’t realize until we were halfway home.”

“Liar.” Bobby’s claws click against the metal as he drums his fingers over the top of the spider. “But, uh, thanks.”

“Thought you might want some tech from your home planet. Or, well, the planet your species comes from.” Alexander lays down on his bed, puts his hands behind his head, and closes his eyes. “Did you know there are actually two subspecies of Zejek?”

“What the kriff?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, yeah, the Zejek people are led by an asshole. Good thing Bobby's a Jedi. 
> 
> Let me know what you thought of this chapter. This has been a really fun story to write and getting to write my own little backstories and HCs for Pawprinter's amazing fic.
> 
> Let me know if you want to see anything? Which part was your favorite? Did you like the characters? Do you have a favorite line?

**Author's Note:**

> Well, I hope this fic is even half as good at the fic it was inspired by. If you haven't read that one, you should because it's amazing (as I keep saying)!
> 
> Let me know what you thought. I don't have a schedule of when more chapters will be coming and how many chapters there will be. But I'm going to stay within the Jedi Academy and not touch any of the events which happen in ATR.


End file.
